Cost Of Oroville Dam Crisis Reaches $870 Million

Drone footage from April 14, 2017 shows water flowing down the damaged main spillway at Lake Oroville.

DWR / YouTube (screen capture)

(AP) - California officials say the costs of dealing with last February's near-disaster at the tallest dam in the country have climbed to $870 million.

That's up from the $500 million total that the state estimated last fall. With both Oroville Dam spillways damaged, officials were forced to order nearly 200,000 people to be evacuated in February.

Department of Water Resources spokeswoman Erin Mellon says California still hopes that federal emergency funds will cover three-fourths of the cost. Mellon says the costs so far do not include more than $1 billion in legal claims filed by property owners downstream.